Firearms with integrated suppressors are desirable because suppressors increase the total length of the firearm and add weight to the muzzle, which impairs the weapon's balance. Usually, integration is accomplished by at least partly encompassing the barrel within the suppressor housing, instead of having the suppressor attach to and extend beyond the muzzle of the firearm.
A suppressor is a device attached to or incorporated into the barrel of a firearm that reduces the amount of noise and also usually the amount of muzzle flash generated by firing the weapon. A suppressor is usually a metal cylinder with internal mechanisms such as baffles to reduce the sound of firing by slowing the escaping propellant gas and sometimes by reducing the velocity of the bullet.
The suppressor is typically a hollow cylindrical piece of machined metal (steel, aluminum, or titanium) containing expansion chambers that attaches to the muzzle of a pistol, submachine gun or rifle. These “can”-type suppressors may be attached to and detached from various firearms. Another type is the “integral” suppressor, which consists of expansion chambers inside a tube that surrounds the barrel. The barrel is sometimes pierced with openings or “ports” that bleed off gases into the chambers for the purpose of directing gas into expansion chambers prior to exiting the muzzle, and sometimes for the purpose of slowing the velocity of the projectile under the speed of sound to prevent the supersonic flight noise of high velocity rounds.
Both types of suppressor reduce noise by allowing the rapidly expanding gases from the firing of the cartridge to be briefly diverted or trapped inside a series of hollow chambers. The trapped gas expands and cools, and its pressure and velocity decreases as it exits the suppressor. The chambers are typically divided by baffles. There are typically a number of chambers in a suppressor, depending on the intended use and design details. Baffles are usually circular metal dividers which separate the expansion chambers. Each baffle has a hole in its center to permit the passage of the bullet through the suppressor and towards the target. Baffles are typically made of stainless steel, aluminum, titanium or alloys such as Inconel, and are either machined out of solid metal, cast, molded, or stamped out of sheet metal.
Baffles may be separated by spacers, which keep them aligned at a specified distance apart inside the suppressor. Many baffles are manufactured as a single assembly with their spacers, and several suppressor designs have all the baffles attached together with spacers as a one-piece “monocore” baffle stack. Modern baffles are usually carefully shaped to divert the propellant gases effectively into the chambers. This shaping can be a slanted flat surface, canted at an angle to the bore, or a conical or otherwise curved surface. One popular technique is to have alternating angled surfaces through the stack of baffles.
Traditional integrated systems consist of the firearm's barrel, the suppressor's baffles, the suppressor's body or housing tube that encloses the baffles, and an accessory mounting rail or non-railed hand guard surrounding the suppressor housing. However, there is no handguard surrounding most existing integrated pistol designs. This type of suppressor is part of the firearm, and maintenance of the suppressor requires at least partial disassembly of the firearm or hand guard, or removing the suppressor from the firearm, which may be disadvantageous for many users.
Therefore, a need exists for a new and improved firearm with integrated suppressor that incorporates the accessory mounting rail or non-railed hand guard itself as the suppressor's housing. In this regard, the various embodiments of the present invention substantially fulfill at least some of these needs. In this respect, the firearm with integrated suppressor according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of facilitating suppressor cleaning via removable side panels that provide access to the suppressor's internals without requiring disassembly of the firearm.